Love Is My Profession 2018

Curator: I’m immediately drawn to the elegant simplicity of this portrait; the limited color palette is very striking. What's catching your eye? Editor: It feels both vintage and very current—like a faded photograph but intentionally so. There’s a vulnerability in that profile, something fragile… almost melancholic, despite the intensity of that red background. Curator: This piece, titled "Love Is My Profession," was created by Vincent Xeus in 2018. The artist has captured a fascinatingly ambiguous image in his distinctive figurative style, a blend of portraiture with that kind of haunting painterly application. It's also tagged as a digital portrait which means it has modern origins in terms of process. What emotional significance do you think the subject's obscured vision carries? Editor: Ah, “Love is My Profession"... Well that does recontextualize my initial impression entirely. A profession isn’t always love, is it? Suddenly I’m reading something harder there in the set of her jaw. The blurring might symbolize the way we romanticize professions – like love – obscuring the work involved. It reminds me of certain classic movies or photography—the visual language of aspiration. Curator: Exactly, and that interplay between reality and perception is central to its emotional impact. There's a duality here—she presents a face, but her true emotions seem deliberately hidden. The red, symbolically potent in so many cultures, reinforces a reading of power, passion, or even a latent anger beneath that calm surface. It feels archetypal. Editor: Archetypes, yes! Absolutely. I think the lack of distinct facial features encourages us to project onto her. Maybe "Love is My Profession" is less about a specific person and more about the *idea* of love as a constructed identity, a role one plays. Like the performance of femininity and expectation, distilled through those cool, diffused brushstrokes. Curator: Indeed. She’s less an individual, more of a mirror reflecting our own concepts of love, duty, and the sacrifices involved. What stays with you, looking at this again? Editor: The quiet tension. The longer I look, the more conflicted emotions I see. It makes you wonder what's simmering beneath that composed exterior. A beautiful paradox to ponder. Curator: Agreed, Vincent Xeus has truly given us an enduring, symbolic enigma. It certainly stays with me too!